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Oshkosh Lodging

RWoodard

Well Known Member
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I searched and couldn't find the usual Oshkosh Lodging thread, so I guess I'll be the one to kick it off.

I just received my work schedule for July and it looks like attending Oshkosh this year will be an option. I'm thinking of combining the Oshkosh visit with my newly-rekindled interest in riding motorcycles. If I ride out, I'm thinking ground transportation won't be an issue, so I can stay pretty much anywhere within about an hour's drive to KOSH.

I've only attended one single day of KOSH and it was more than 2 decades ago so I'm to be considered a complete neophyte. Is it conceivable that one could "commute" to KOSH on a daily basis? I'm not interested in camping--AT ALL! I'm one of those people who considers a Holiday Inn Express to be borderline camping. I can tolerate nearly anything in terms of heat and humidity during the day so long as I can take a warm shower and sleep in air conditioning at night.

I'll continue to watch the forum for rooms that may come available as people's schedules ebb and flow as we get closer to the date, but more than anything, I'm just curious as to whether my concept of commuting to the airfield each day via motorcycle is even reasonable.

Thanks in advance! ...and everybody feel free to tag on to this thread if you have other Oshkosh housing type questions. Won't hurt my feelings a bit.
 
Valley Christian School.

I have stayed there for the past 18 Airventures. You share a room with 6-8 others. Air conditioned. Hot showers. Breakfast is Home-made. Home-made dinners for a fee. Bus transportation to the show. Kind of like summer camp. Great volunteers take care of you. Big fundraiser for the school. Lots of international guests. Highly recommend the place.
 
Daily motorcycle commute

Rod,

I would not recommend a daily motorcycle commute to Airventure. There's a good bit of time sitting in traffic both arriving and departing. Hard on the rider and hard on the motorcycle (particularly if it's air-cooled).

Here's my suggestion. Ride to Oshkosh and find accommodations with transportation to Airventure every day, or stay within walking distance.
 
No personal experience, but I'm told that the Ripon Arrival can be tricky on a motorcycle.
 
I usually get a hotel 30-40 min away but no matter what time you try to get in the traffic is brutal. This year I'm taking a tent, cooler, and going to give camping a try. I've been told to camp further out from the flightline and take a bike to chain up at the gate into the show.
 
No personal experience, but I'm told that the Ripon Arrival can be tricky on a motorcycle.

Yeah, staying centered on the railroad tracks ranges between "rough ride" and "I just got turned into a greasy spot."
 
philip,
a long time ago...........i learned that riding my motorcycle between the rails was smooth as silk after a certain speed[ maybe 20 mph.]
the grease spot thing was the same though.
 
Our first visit to Oshkosh was in 2019. We flew in my new-to-me RV6A and camped in homebuilt camping. It was an adventure and a bucket list item for me, but with my wife's health issues, was not an option for this year. So this year we are flying in commercial to MKE, from there taking bus to and staying in the UW-OSH dorms. Had reserved a non-AC room as all the AC rooms were already booked, but got an email yesterday that an AC room had come available, so took it. City bus runs between dorms and EAA main gate every 30 minutes with first bus leaving dorms at 6:30am and last bus leaving EAA main gate at 11pm. $5 per ride or weekly pass for $30.
 
Rod,

I would not recommend a daily motorcycle commute to Airventure. There's a good bit of time sitting in traffic both arriving and departing. Hard on the rider and hard on the motorcycle (particularly if it's air-cooled).

Here's my suggestion. Ride to Oshkosh and find accommodations with transportation to Airventure every day, or stay within walking distance.

This is not correct.

If you come in the back way to Camp Scholler via Knapp St and park at at any number of places where there is motorcycle parking it is very easy to get in an out.
 
I have always had a good experience stayjng in Fond du Lac at a college called Marion. Only a 20 min ride up I believe hwy 41 and the Dorm rooms are fine. They do have larger group rooms . Restroom and showers at the end of the hall like i remember them. They serve breakfast included with the room and there's lot of places to eat in town, the pedestrian traffic is a bit less than OSK.

I assume thats back on For this year but havent checked
 
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This year will mark my 7th Airventure trip. I have driven up with my dad and camped multiple times with my dad. Flown up and camped on South 40 once. And last year we flew up and stayed in an RV on the field in the RV improved site. There were major compromises with all of them, so I went all out and rented a house on Lake Winnebago this year. It was a big commitment on the outset but after filling the house up with other buddies it will come out to $150 per man per night which I find reasonable. We are flying the Aircam I built up so this will give us great access to the airplane throughout the week to do some local flying. The biggest hurdle was transportation. I did not want to rent a car due to the logistics of parking at the field every day so I finally lined up the best-kept secret of the volunteers of Oshkosh, Scooters!!! A scoot will allow you to drive right in and park at the gates with the bikes. Our house is 1.5 miles from the seaplane base and a little over 8 miles from the field on the small country back roads so the 50cc scoots will be fine. I don't want to jinx myself but I have a good feeling this setup will be the way to go moving forward.
 
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